Journalist Maxime Switek before a debate with candidates for the next European elections, organized by the BFMTV television channel in Paris, May 27, 2024 (AFP / JULIEN DE ROSA)
Overtaken by CNews in the race for audiences, BFMTV is pulling out all the stops: the news channel, bought in July by billionaire Rodolphe Saadé, will launch a “major 8 p.m. newscast” in January, chasing the lands of TF1 and France 2.
This new program entrusted to Maxime Switek was announced Tuesday morning at an editorial conference by the new general director of the channel and former boss of LCI, Fabien Namias, who arrived at the end of September, BFMTV told AFP.
According to Le Monde, which revealed the information, it should last two hours and mix reports, interviews and expert analyses, the objective being “to move away from confrontational formats to favor a dispassionate, even benevolent, approach, of information.”
Maxime Switek will replace Eric Brunet, who arrived at the start of the school year to compete with Pascal Praud (Cnews), in the 8:00 p.m.-10:00 p.m. slot where BFMTV initially promised “facts, rants, favorites”.
The channel, however, intends to continue its collaboration with Eric Brunet, as with his co-host Alice Darfeuille. She is also counting on her internal figures to replace Maxime Switek, currently in charge of the morning show (9 a.m.-12 p.m.).
This upheaval occurs in a complicated context for the news channel.
By competing with the major general channels, BFMTV seeks to distinguish itself from CNews, which has stolen its status as the leading news channel several times in recent months, in terms of audience share (PDA).
In November, CNews, the subsidiary of the Canal+ group in the fold of conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, collected a PDA of 3.1%, rising ahead of BFMTV (2.8%) for the third consecutive month, according to figures from Médiamétrie published Monday.
Accused by the left of promoting far-right ideas, which it contests, CNews had already beaten BFMTV for the first time in May and then in June, interrupting a continuous domination since 2008.
In terms of cumulative audience, however, BFMTV retains first place, with 12.5 million viewers per day, or 1.5 times more than CNews, she argues.
– “to cope” –
Nicolas de Tavernost, interim CEO of RMC BFM, also reiterated in September that the success of his rival was based on “the older population” and longer listening time.
But the domination of CNews on certain segments remains undeniable.
Its show “L'heure des pros 2”, presented by Pascal Praud from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m., attracted 845,000 viewers on average (4.1% PDA) in November, compared to 216,000 (1% PDA) for the first hour of “20H Brunet” on BFMTV.
By offering a major two-hour newscast, will BFMTV keep its viewers longer? Will it hurt TF1 and France 2?
The headline news, presented by Gilles Bouleau, brought together an average of “5.5 million viewers” (27.6% PDA), ahead of that of France 2, presented by Anne-Sophie Lapix and extended since the start of the school year, “with a difference of more than 1.7 million viewers, a record since October 2014”, according to TF1.
At BFMTV, Fabien Namias and his co-pilot Jean-Philippe Baille, who succeeded Marc-Olivier Fogiel and Hervé Béroud, have their work cut out for them.
BFMTV has seen around twenty departures within its editorial staff in recent weeks (out of 800 journalists within RMC BFM), due to the transfer clause open until May with the purchase of the channel by the shipowner CMA CGM by Rodolphe Saadé. Among them, several figures from the channel, such as editorial director Philippe Corbé.
“There will be others, but we will cope,” assured Nicolas de Tavernost last week during a conference organized by the consulting firm NPA.
We will also soon have to deal with a probable change in the numbering of DTT and the creation of a block of news channels. Concretely, LCI (channel 26) and Franceinfo (27) could get closer to BFMTV (15) and CNews (16) on remote controls.
An option strongly opposed by Nicolas de Tavernost.
